In this article, which appeared in the sixth catalogue for the Festival Franco-Chileno de Video Arte (1986), Nelly Richard discusses how video was used for artistic purposes in Chile. From a theoretical standpoint, she explores the experimental use of video in the United States and Europe as compared to the sociopolitical approach taken by video artists in Latin America, and especially in Chile. She notes the differences between the two regions, underscoring the technological progress achieved by countries in the northern hemisphere. She also acknowledges the political situation in the 1980s in the southern hemisphere, where military dictatorships prompted an entirely different range of concerns. The author claims that video art got its start in Chile between 1979 and 1980, in the hands of Eugenio Dittborn, Diamela Eltit, Alfredo Jaar, Victor Hugo Codocedo, Juan Enrique Forch, and Carlos Flores, among others. Richard groups local video production as follows: “documentary video” (Lotty Rosenfeld), “indigenous video” (Juan Downey and Dittborn), and “video installations” (Carlos Leppe and Carlos Altamirano). She also mentions the video art created by women who developed the medium via appropriation.

Beginning in 1981 the Festival Franco-Chileno de Video Arte was jointly organized by the French Embassy’s Cultural Service, the Franco-Chilean Cultural Institute, and the Chilean Video Society (all of which were in Santiago). These festivals created a way to expose the earliest works of local artists who were experimenting with the use of video and provided a forum where theorists and critics could express their opinions about those works. The festival gradually developed into an unconventional event that encouraged artists to experiment with the medium. The festival was run by Ignacio Aliaga, Carlos Flores, and Néstor Olhagaray, the founders of the Sociedad Chilena de Video.

This sixth edition of the catalogue, produced in the mid-1980s, includes Nelly Richard’s theoretical essay in which she briefly reviews video production from an international, Latin American, and local perspective. Richard underscores how Chilean (and Latin American) video artists strive to produce works of a decidedly sociopolitical nature, eschewing the clichés churned out by the region’s dictatorial regimes.

As on previous and subsequent occasions, the sixth festival had a selection committee that was charged with selecting videos (which were shown November 17–29, 1986). Members of that committee included Michèle Goldstein, Justo Pastor Mellado, and Yessica Ulloa, as well as Flores and Richard. Richard and Mellado also headed the editorial committee that was responsible for choosing the theme for the event and arranging the schedule of activities.